Dr. Steve Issacs, chief of staff at Hugh Chatham Memorial hospital, spoke to the attendees of the monthly meeting of the leadership class on Thursday about the new and innovative services offered by the hospital’s emergency department.

The leadership class, made up of business leaders and residents of the area, attend one class each month for a year, to learn more about the services and opportunities for cutting edge health care now offered locally.

“Our new emergency department is located in our great new facility,” Issacs said. “Our new heli-pad allows for safer landing of the medical helicopters and an easier path to move patients from the hospital to the copter pad.

“Our new trauma rooms allow us to have one to two patient beds with ample room for all the medical equipment we might need to help diagnose and treat our patients,” he said. “Each new patient room is equipped with monitors and operating room lighting, some even have completely motorized patient beds for ease of moving the patient if needed.”

Issacs spoke to the group of the new tele-diagnostic capabilities of the hospital and the great asset the hospital’s patients would gain from it.

“We have the capability of dialing up neurology specialist from across the country to help diagnose and asset the treatment for stroke patients,” Issacs said. “This enables us to treat the patients that fit the criteria for the clod-busting drug, tPA, that in some cases will reverse the damages of the stroke. Not every patient who has a stroke will benefit from the drug. The drug only helps a very short list of stroke and must be administered within three hours of the onset of the symptoms.

“By using the tele-medicine and conferring with neurology specialists from across he country, patients can have a consult with a specialist at their bedside,” he said.

Issacs set up the tele-patient machine for the class and hooked up with an neurology specialist in San Diego, who took the time to speak to the class about the “doctors in the box” program which includes access to over 1,600 hospitals with 100 specialist working in the program.

Issacs also spoke about the new pediatric emergency program where HCMH doctors work closely with physicians at Brenner Childrens hospital, a part of Wake Forest University Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem.

“Our quick-care department is a department within the emergency room that is staffed 15 hours a day,” Issacs said. “It allows patients who need emergency service that doesn’t involve life-threating conditions to be treated in a more timely manner.

“In 2009, we had over 27,000 emergency room visits,” he said. “Our turn around time has gone down, which provides the patients faster care.”

The emergency room physicians are a privately owned group contracted to the hospital called PLLC. They provide the hospital with 24-hour coverage. The group does it’s own billing for services provided within HCMH. They include eight full time physicians, four part-time physicians and four part-time mid-level physicians.

David Loving, CEO of HCMH, spoke to the class about the capability of HCMH to handle most all trauma cases that come in to the hospital and the capability of the hospital’s physicians to stabilize patients who have experienced severe trauma who need to be moved to a regional trauma center.

Issacs explained to the class that most large trauma centers are regional because of the multitude of equipment needed to be a major trauma center.

Loving also spoke of the final construction project that is expected to be completed by August.

“By August, our new dedicated ER C-section room will be complete in our women’s services,” Loving said. “This room will be available for emergency C-sections only. From what I understand, from the time it’s discovered that a baby is in trouble there is only a 12 - 15 minute window in which to work to save the baby, get it out, so to say. Expectant mothers will now have that service available to them.

Steva Bledsoe, an emergency room volunteer spoke about her experience working with patients in the ER.

“In the seven months I’ve been working as a volunteer in the emergency room department, I have found it to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” Bledsoe said. “My 33 years of teaching in the public school system has made me aware and prepared for working with patients.

“It is very gratifying to help some one who has come in to the emergency room with the anxiety that may accompany that visit,” she said. “Several patients come in through the ER for easier access to the heart-lung rehabilitation unit. This entrance allows them access to the wheelchairs they often need to get to the unit. I believe volunteering at HCMH is one of the things I was meant to do in life.”

The leadership class meets once monthly in the medical staff conference room of Hugh Chatham Memorial. Attendees are charged with information that allows them the opportunity to be liaisons between the community and the hospital.